1966 Topps Venezuelan Near-Complete Set in Original Album (360/370)

Sold For: $1,800

Auction Year:2017 spring

Lot: 1384

Item Year:1966

Category:Postwar Baseball Cards (1948-present)

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Extremely rare 1966 Topps Venezuelan near-complete set featuring 360 of 370 cards, each mounted inside the original album designed specifically to house this set, which has been leather-bound to preserve the cards. The Topps Venezuelan issues are among the most fascinating sets of the 1960s. The first 370 cards of Topps’ 1966 baseball set were reprinted on a darker cardboard stock for sale exclusively in the Venezuelan market. The fronts and backs are identical in design to the regular-issue Topps’ cards (some Venezuelan issues print the reverse text in Spanish) but have no gloss on the front. Most often Venezuelan cards are encountered in extremely modest condition as they were intended to be glued into albums for display and many suffer glue residue or severe paper loss as a result of their removal without proper care from these albums. The offered set is especially noteworthy as it has remained entirely mounted with the corresponding album as intended. The blue, thin-stock album featured nine blank spaces to a page; each space had printed below it the name, team, and statistics of the player whose card was to be placed there. As a result of their preservation in this original album, almost all the cards present at a level far better than normally encountered, ranging in grade from Vg to Ex-Mt (with a few lesser including a dozen with pen writing on the front). The cards have been neatly positioned in their appropriate spots and have been left undisturbed for over fifty years! A few pages of the album are missing as there is no front or back cover or the page meant to display checklist and team cards. Missing the following ten cards for completion: Checklist #34, 101, 183, 279, and 353 and Team Cards #59 Reds, 92 Yankees, 131 Angels, 172 Mets, and 194 Senators. Key cards featured in this album include #30 Rose, 50 Mantle, 72 Perez, 90 Aparicio, 100 Koufax, 110 Banks, 120 Killebrew, 125 Brock, 126 Palmer RC, 132 Cepeda, 160 Ford, 195 Morgan, 200 Mathews, 254 Jenkins RC, 255 Stargell, 288 Sutton RC, 290 Santo, 300 Clemente, 310 F. Robinson, and eleven League Leader cards. The album itself (without reference to missing pages) shows heavy wear and the pages have all been trimmed down (none of the cards have been affected). Though they receive little attention because they are rarely found in high grade, Topps Venezuelan cards are among the most unusual and rare baseball card sets of the decade, and are virtually never seen in complete or near-complete set form. This is only the second collection (of any size) of Topps Venezuelan cards from 1966 that we have ever offered. The blue, leather-bound album reads "Album, Baseball 1966 Grandes Licas Series 1-2-3Y4, Freddy R. Perez C" in gilt lettering on the cover. Total: 360 cards. Reserve $1,000. Estimate (open).